Flandry's Motivations

I am reflecting on motivations because I listed the motivations of twenty four Poul Anderson characters here. This kind of reflection can:

be abstract or philosophical;
focus on characters in any work of fiction;
address real persons and situations.

Because we are on the Poul Anderson Appreciation blog, we can stay with Flandry. In one novel, he gathers crucial intelligence by having sex with a married woman. Conventionally, this is immoral. In Flandry's view, and also in my view, it is not. It harms no one, gives pleasure to two people and advances Flandry's mission when the fates of worlds are at stake.

Let's return to a more abstract level of discussion. Example: Flandry wants to perform action x but believes that x is wrong and is very strong willed. Outcome: Flandry does not do x because his will is stronger than his want. However, Flandry did not choose to want x, did not choose to believe that x was wrong and did not choose to be strong willed. He might have been weak willed in which case he would have done x. For social and legal purposes, we must continue to regard Flandry as responsible for his actions unless a medical report says otherwise. But ultimately Flandry did not choose any of the factors that determined whether or not he did x. Philosophically, I cannot avoid a determinist conclusion.